The large number of fatalities aboard overcrowded vessels carrying immigrants away from famine-devastated Ireland led them to be labeled "coffin ships." This political cartoon from Harper's Weekly, by W. A. Rogers, ran with the caption, "The balance of trade with Great Britain seems to be still against us. 630 paupers arrived at Boston in the steamship Nestoria, April 15th, from Galway, Ireland shipped by the British Government."
The Irish vessel is labeled "Poor House from Galway." The smaller vessel to the left is marked with the words, "From New York. The Dynamite." The small box on which the man in the plaid coat is seated also contains the words "the dynamite."